Nitrogen Isotopic Composition and Density of the Archean Atmosphere

Understanding the atmosphere's composition during the Archean eon is a fundamental issue to unravel ancient environmental conditions. We show from the analysis of nitrogen and argon isotopes in fluid inclusions trapped in 3.0-3.5 Ga hydrothermal quartz that the PN2 of the Archean atmosphere was lower than 1.1 bar, possibly as low as 0.5 bar, and had a nitrogen isotopic composition comparable to the present-day one. These results imply that dinitrogen did not play a significant role in the thermal budget of the ancient Earth and that the Archean PCO2 was probably lower than 0.7 bar

Equity Markets and the Performance of Hedge Funds: How stable is Persistence?

We investigate the performance of hedge funds inbull and bear equity markets. Covering the period from January1994 to December 2008, we find that each bull and bear marketperiod has its dominant independent variables. Furthermore, thelevel of performance persistence is not significantly related toequity market conditions. The analyses show that hedge fundperformance persistence is stronger in more recent sub-periodsthan in earlier sub-periods. In bullish as well as in bearish equitymarkets, performance persistence is driven by both constantwinners and losers. Moreover, both live and dead funds exhibitstatistically significant levels of performance persistence

Endoscopic Treatment of Stump Infection of the Residual Synovial Cavity After Through-the-Knee Amputation: A Case Report

CASE We report the case of a 35-year-old patient who presented with a septic residual synovial cavity infection 8 weeks after a through-the-knee amputation because of a parosteal sarcoma. An endoscopic evacuation of the turbid fluid and synovial debridement through parapatellar portals as in a standard knee arthroscopy was performed, in conjunction with appropriate antibiotic therapy. One year postoperatively, there were no signs of residual infection. CONCLUSION Endoscopic treatment of a septic stump infection of the residual synovial cavity after through-the-knee amputation is feasible. In our case, this approach resulted in rapid wound healing and early prosthesis mobility

Cross-polarization effects in sheared 2D grating couplers in a photonic BiCMOS technology

We investigate numerically and experimentally sheared 2D grating couplers in a photonic BiCMOS technology with a focus on their splitting behavior. Two realization forms of a waveguide-to-grating shear angle are considered. The cross-polarization used as a figure-of-merit is shown to be strongly dependent on the grating perturbation strength and is a crucial limitation not only for the grating splitting performance, but also for its coupling efficiency.Comment: This is a preprint version of an article accepted for publication in Japanese Journal of Applied Physics. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The full Version of Record is available online at DOI: 10.35848/1347-4065/ab8e2

Penalties From 2D Grating Coupler Induced Polarization Crosstalk in Silicon Photonic Coherent Transceivers

Silicon photonic two-dimensional grating couplers for C- and O-band dual-polarization coherent transceivers are analyzed with respect to their polarization splitting/combining performance. Due to scattered light in the grating's plane, a linear cross-polarization results. The latter is responsible for a limited polarization split ratio and a polarizations' non-orthogonality. The impact of these two quantities is evaluated by system-level simulations with regard to OSNR penalties in coherent systems. For both C- and O-band, a design modification for reduced penalties is proposed

Subject-Independent Detection of Yes/No Decisions Using EEG Recordings During Motor Imagery Tasks: A Novel Machine-Learning Approach with Fine-Graded EEG Spectrum

The classification of sensorimotor rhythms in electroencephalography signals can enable paralyzed individuals, for example, to make yes/no decisions. In practice, these approaches are hard to implement due to the variability of electroencephalography signals between and within subjects. Therefore, we report a novel and fast machine learning model, meeting the need for efficiency and reliability as well as low calibration and training time. Our model extracts finely graded frequency bands from motor imagery electroencephalography data by using power spectral density and training a random forest algorithm for classification. The goal was to create a non-invasive generalizable method by training the algorithm with subject-independent EEG data. We evaluate our approach using one of the currently largest publicly available electroencephalography datasets. With a balanced accuracy of 73.94%, our novel algorithm outperforms other state-of-the-art non-subject-dependent algorithms

Zusammenhänge zwischen Größe, Entfernung zur Niedrigwasserlinie und Territorialverhalten bei Actinia spp. im Eulitoral von Le Cabellou

Die im Intertidal von Le Cabellou vorkommenden Seeanemonen Actinia fragacea, A. equina und A. prasina zeigen eine auffällige Verteilung nach Größe und Art. Während große Individuen in Bereichen des unteren Eulitorals zu finden sind, häufen sich kleinere Individuen im oberen Eulitoral. Dafür wurden 120 Individuen aus verschiedenen Bereichen des Eulitorals gesammelt und deren Art bestimmt. Nach Vermessung der einzelnen Individuen wurden Versuche zum Territorialverhalten durchgeführt um Rückschlüsse auf die Gründe dieser Verteilung ziehen zu können. Es konnte ein signifikanter Gewichtsunterschied zwischen den Individuen des oberen und des unteren Eulitorals festgestellt werden, der sich nicht durch den Grad der Hydratisierung erklären lässt und sich auch in der Artverteilung wiederspiegelt. Es konnte aufgrund von zu kleiner Stichprobengröße nicht gezeigt werden, dass die Artverteilung durch interspezifisches Artverhalten determiniert ist.The sea anemones Actinia fragacea, A. equina and A. prasina, which occur in the intertidal of Le Cabellou, show a conspicuous distribution according to size and species. While large individuals can be found in areas of the lower eulitoral, smaller individuals accumulate in the upper eulitoral. For this purpose, 120 individuals from different areas of the Eulitoral were collected and their species determined. After measuring the individual individuals, experiments on territorial behavior were carried out in order to be able to draw conclusions about the reasons for this distribution. There was a significant difference in weight between the individuals of the upper and lower eulittal, which cannot be explained by the degree of hydration and is also reflected in the species distribution. Because the sample size was too small, it could not be shown that the species distribution is determined by interspecific species behavior.Peer Reviewe

Formalizing ontology alignment and its operations with category theory

zimmermann2006aInternational audienceAn ontology alignment is the expression of relations between different ontologies. In order to view alignments independently from the language expressing ontologies and from the techniques used for finding the alignments, we use a category-theoretical model in which ontologies are the objects. We introduce a categorical structure, called V-alignment, made of a pair of morphisms with a common domain having the ontologies as codomain. This structure serves to design an algebra that describes formally what are ontology merging, alignment compo- sition, union and intersection using categorical constructions. This enables combining alignments of various provenance. Although the desirable properties of this algebra make such abstract manipulation of V-alignments very simple, it is practically not well fitted for expressing complex alignments: expressing subsumption between entities of two different ontologies demands the definition of non-standard categories of ontologies. We consider two approaches to solve this problem. The first one extends the notion of V-alignments to a more complex structure called W-alignments: a formalization of alignments relying on "bridge axioms". The second one relies on an elaborate concrete category of ontologies that offers high expressive power. We show that these two extensions have different advantages that may be exploited in different contexts (v

Natural History of Degenerative Hip Abductor Tendon Lesions

BACKGROUND The best treatment of degenerative hip abductor tendon lesions remains largely unknown, as the natural course of the disease has not yet been reported. The aim of the present study was to investigate the natural history of symptomatic degenerative hip abductor lesions. HYPOTHESIS Nonoperatively treated hip abductor lesions progress over time, resulting in refractory hip pain and low functional outcomes. STUDY DESIGN Case series (prognosis); Level of evidence, 4. METHODS Consecutive patients with greater trochanteric pain syndrome and degenerative changes on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the symptomatic hip were included. Bilateral hip MRI scans and a clinical examination were performed at a minimum follow-up of 36 months to study the type and location of hip abductor lesion. Progression of a lesion was defined as a more severe lesion as compared with the initial MRI results or if the lesion extended to another, initially not involved, trochanteric facet. The muscle's fatty infiltration (FI) was also described. RESULTS From 106 patients identified, 58 patients (64 hips) aged 66 ± 14 years (mean ± SD) agreed to return to the clinic for follow-up MRI and met the inclusion criteria. At a mean 71-month follow-up, an overall 34% (22/64) of lesions had progressed over time: from trochanteric bursitis to tendinopathy (9/64, 14%) or partial tear (5/64, 8%), from tendinopathy to partial tear (4/64, 6%), from a partial to complete tear (3/64, 4.5%), and with 1 complete tear (1/64, 1.5%) extending to another trochanteric facet. Interestingly, 90% of partial tears remained stable or transformed into a scar. Although patients with a progressive lesion experienced more trochanteric pain (visual analog scale, 4.6 vs 2.8; P = .001), the functional outcomes were comparable with patients with a stable lesion. The majority of hips with a partial tear (64%) demonstrated a progression of gluteus minimus FI from a median grade of 1 to 2, whereas only 1 hip (3%) progressed from grade 2 to 3. Only 3 hips (9%) with a partial tear had a progression of gluteus medius FI, which did not differ significantly from the contralateral unaffected side. CONCLUSION Nonoperative treatment might be a valid long-term option for degenerative hip abductor lesions, especially for partial tears, which demonstrated a low risk of clinically relevant progression or muscle FI and similar clinical outcomes to those reported in the literature for operatively treated hip abductor tendon lesions